A Short Interview with Coma Pony

Coma Pony began in 2011 as a musical project between Chuy and Marco in Chihuahua, Mexico. Playing for fun, to party with friends and do what they like, this band represents pure love. In this short interview, Chuy discusses the impact that this project had on his creative process.

In August, we wrote a piece about The Ocean Outlaw Project, an initiative by Ian Urbina who is an investigative reporter with the New York Times. What began as a series of articles became the foundation for a best-selling book. Now, The Ocean Outlaw Music Project leverages the power of music to put a spotlight on the immediate need for engagement and stewardship of our collective resource, the ocean, directing that message towards a younger demographic that is not traditionally engaged with mainstream news media. Ian and his team furnish top beat-makers and innovators from the international electronic music scene with audio stems taken from the front lines of their groundbreaking journalism. Participating artists are encouraged to use these sounds to create original work that explores the ocean as a source of inspiration, beauty, and self-reflection. The results have been nothing short of amazing, as time and again the critically important work of The Ocean Outlaw Project catalyses some truly stunning works of electronic music ranging from downtempo to ambient, indie electro, and post-rock.

This next batch features songs by Mad Zach, BROCKBEATS, Slumberville, and many more. To get a feel for the sheer breadth of this project the official Spotify playlist, which already includes more than 1 thousand songs, is a great place to start. So far, more than 400 artists are participating, from 50 countries, while over 200 albums have been published - with more than a million streams - while there remain 200 more albums to publish in the next 12 months. The project has been a resounding success. Yet, there is much work left to be done.

The Outlaw Ocean is a New York Times Best-Selling book by Ian Urbina that chronicles lawlessness at sea around the world. This reporting touches on a diversity of abuses ranging from illegal and overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murder of stowaways, thievery of ships and other topics.

Meet XiJaro & Pitch

For their new release "No Longer A Secret," the music producer/DJ duo of Xander van Dommelen and Anthony Reyers - also known as XiJaro & Pitch - created an outline of the most serious issues that confront The Ocean Outlaw Project. Fused with their signature production style that brings together orchestral elements with a trance-based aesthetic, the 8-song album brings a fresh sense of energy to these complicated issues.

One of the book's most inspiring ideas to us is that common concepts of justice that are self-explanatory on land don't seem to apply on the high seas. This means that crimes such as illegal fishing, oil dumping, and corruption, but also kidnapping, slavery, and murder - caught on camera - are not only commonplace out there, but also largely remain unpunished. At least, right now, we know about them. – XiJaro & Pitch

Click here for more information about The Ocean Outlaw Project. We are proud to support a continued discussion around the important topic of how we can best manage our collective resources. By supporting these artists, we can continue to put a spotlight on some of the most egregious and exploitative practices, and help the public at large to become more aware of these issues. After all, the ocean belongs to all of us.

Spotify Links

The Outlaw Ocean Music Project playlist.

Mad Zach - Eye of the Storm

XiJaro & Pitch - No Longer A Secret

BROCKBEATS - undercover

Coma Pony - Between The Ocean and The Sea

Slumberville - The Ocean's Depth

Marco Faraone - HOPE

Ron Flatter - Pulling Nets

Viperactive - Project Uncharted